Melissa McCarthy had been working quietly in the background of some of your favorite shows and movies for years before she finally had her breakout moment on Bridesmaids. Since then the actor has risen to greater heights with each passing year, combining her superb comic timing and talent for physical slapstick with an unerring instinct for the more serious moments.
Today, McCarthy is known as a brilliant actress instead of simply a comic one. Here are 10 of her best roles so far, from the out-and-out hilarious to her more serious turns.
Megan from Bridesmaids
In a movie filled with gifted comedians, McCarthy’s character of Megan was the breakout star, with the actress being nominated for an Oscar for her performance.
Megan could very easily have ended up the token comic weirdo, who was good for a meme or two but with little depth behind the zany moments. But in McCarthy’s hands, Megan became so much more than that. She was a loyal, brave and sensitive part of the group who is a little rough around the edges, but still an important part of the unit.
Susan Cooper from Spy
Few actors are as good at physical comedy, and Spy allowed McCarthy to showcase her abilities to the fullest. Susan Cooper is a CIA desk jockey who finds herself thrust unexpectedly into the field and must take on a crime gang on her own.
Surprisingly, McCarthy finds the perfect comedy partner in action star Jason Statham, who has just as much fun in his role as Susan’s loose cannon field partner. The interactions between the two are the highlights of the movie, whether engaging in a childish round of insults or in a knock-down, drag-out fight with waves of faceless henchmen.
Sookie St. James from Gilmore Girls
One of the earliest roles that got McCarthy acclaim and a devoted fandom, Sookie was Lorelai’s best friend and a chef without equal. Here we got to see early on the qualities of warmth and sensitivity that make McCarthy so much more than a simple comedian.
Sookie might be a bit of a klutz and a quirky oddball at times, but she is also sharp-as-nails when it comes to her job, and in fact, opens a business along with Lorelai while also managing to find herself in a warm and loving relationship.
Molly from Mike and Molly
Molly Flynn is one half of the lead pair of the hit show. This was McCarthy’s first lead role before movies came calling, and it proved that she was more than ready to take on the responsibility of being the lead for an entire production.
Her relationship with Mike is built on love and mutual understanding, but Molly is much more than just the homely wife. The character manages to showcase McCarthy’s comfort with both comedy and drama, with several of the show’s more heartfelt moments being carried by Molly.
Margaret from The Nines
Ryan Reynolds stars opposite McCarthy in this oddball sci-fi fantasy, and while we wish the two comedy masters would have worked on something which allowed them to better showcase their comedy chops opposite each other, this strange drama offers a different sort of acting showreel.
With both actors playing three different roles… or rather, the same characters playing three different versions of themselves…. or rather two higher-dimensional beings playing at being humans playing at being other characters playing at being… look, it’s a pretty confusing storyline, but worth checking out for the performances and the intriguing concept behind the plot.
Maggie in St. Vincent
Even though Bill Murray’s role swallowed up most of the praise the film received in terms of the performances, Melissa McCarthy was more than able to hold her own acting opposite the veteran actor.
As Maggie, McCarthy did what she does best, take a role that had little going for it on paper beyond the regular female character tropes of the harried single mother trying to raise her son on her own.
The film played particularly to McCarthy’s strengths when it comes to making the small, human moments more believable with her quiet demeanor and expressive body language that reveals more about Maggie than pages of exposition could.
Sean Spicer from SNL
McCarthy’s role as Sean Spicer on SNL was a secret until she strutted out in front of the show’s live audience, her hair hidden behind a balding toupee, her face scrunched in a permanent scowl, her habitually sunny demeanor giving way to an irate, dim-witted parody of Spicer, complete with several incoherent ramblings and a refusal to listen to sense.
Spicer is quite possibly the most popular SNL character of the past decade, delighting and incensing audiences in equal measure depending on their political allegiance.
Mullins from The Heat
Any time Sandra Bullock and McCarthy team up for a comedy, you know it’s going to be special. But Mullins, McCarthy’s character from the movie, is so much more than a comic sidekick.
Short-tempered and reckless, Mullins allowed the actress to cut loose in a never-before-seen way, as she went full action mode as the cop who gets way too personally involved in her cases, turning entire scenes into laughter riots while managing to play the character totally straight.
Kathy from The Kitchen
If Mullins was the loose cannon, Kathy was the simmering volcano. Starting out as the dutiful and invisible mob wife until her husband is arrested, Kathy spearheads a mission along with the other mob wives to take over the criminal underworld in New york’s Hell’s Kitchen in the 1970s.
While the movie received mixed reviews, McCarthy gets to sink her teeth into a Walter White-esque role, where she gets to show the transformation of her character from the put-upon underdog to a crime boss.
Lee Israel from Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Possibly McCarthy’s most critically acclaimed role so far, and the furthest departure from her image as a broadly comic actor.
As Lee Israel, McCarthy brings haunting pathos and poignancy to the role of a novelist who descends into a life of crime to make ends meet. In a way that only McCarthy can, she makes the character of Lee, even while committing crimes, not only someone you can forgive but whom you actually end up rooting for.
